Hannibal: Life Death
by Weeyitbat
Summary: Set after the events of the season 3 finale, Jack Crawford and his team analyze the crime scene where the Great Red Dragon fell and searches for what was the fate of his friend and Will and Hannibal begin their next journey together to embrace Will's darkness.
1. Chapter 1

9 months ago

 _Famed psychiatrist and serial killer, Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter escaped FBI protective custody after being freed by the notorious killer Francis Dolarhyde also known as "The Great Red Dragon" or "The Tooth Fairy" where FBI special consultant, Will Graham went with Lecter in hopes of catching both killers or at least one should one kill the other, or neither if their lives all ended that night. It is believed Lecter's transfer was to draw out Dolarhyde, but only Special Agent Jack Crawford, Dr. Alana Bloom, and Graham would know for certain._

 _When the FBI picked up Lecter and Dolarhyde's trail to a mountainside cabin overlooking the ocean, evidence suggested all of the men perished that night, but only one body was recovered. The mutilated body of Francis Dolarhyde was found lying in a pool of his own blood, the bodies of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter are currently unknown as is the specification of their supposed deaths, but the FBI is not releasing much information beyond that._

Jack Crawford arrived to the scene with as many SWAT operatives he could muster as well as his forensic team, Jimmy Price and Brian Zeller. As he made his way through the cabin he couldn't help thinking, _Dammit Will you better have taken both those bastards with you if you died._ He noticed the broken glass from the sliding glass doors that led to the back patio and noticeable blood spatters on the otherwise clean beige carpeting. Jack followed the chaos out to the patio where his team was already analyzing the blood spatters and the dead body on the scene.

"Jack!" Price called out, "It's Dolarhyde!" Jack rushed over to his old colleague, "Are you sure?" he asked unsure. Dolarhyde had faked his own suicide earlier that week to surprise Will and Hannibal, so he needed his team to be sure.

"It definitely matches the other DNA evidence we found from the other murders and it matches every description we've been given of him." Price answered statiscally. "Looks like our white knight slayed the Dragon." He mused.

Jack looked stone faced, preparing himself for the worst, "And what about our white knight?" he asked. "Where's Will?"

"Jack!" Zeller called him over to the edge of the cliff that overlooked the ocean.

Jack made his way over to Zeller, still prepared for bad news. "Anything?"

Zeller pointed at the ground in front of him, "These scuff patterns on the rock indicate something disturbed this area of land," he said. "The measurement of the slants on the scuffs indicate something, or someone slipped off the edge."

"Or was pushed."

Zeller was having a hard time getting his next words out, "Jack…I mean…there are two sets of scuffs," he continued. "Suggesting- -"

"Suggesting that two people fell."

He nodded. "And if the blood analysis on the two samples that we found over here come back the way we expect…it looks like Will and Lecter are both gone…"

Jack bit his bottom lip, "Did you find a body? Any bodies?"

Zeller shook his head, Jack nodded and walked over to the edge and looked and the rough waters below. _Will, what the hell have you done?_

Miles away, Will Graham woke up in a room he did not recognize covered in bandages, the color of the room was stale and appeared to need a new paintjob, the room was mostly empty aside from a few piles of clothes left on the floor and magazines of beautiful supermodels in lingerie lay on the floor as well with crude red marker drawings around certain body parts, like the eyes, the hair, skin, and so forth. _Where am I?_ He asked himself as he sat up, the bed making a creaking noise. The last thing he remembered was the fall, water enveloping him and crushing him over and over again and losing sight of… _Hannibal!_ He could hardly believe he was still alive, but if he was then Hannibal was definitely still breathing as well.

A young slender man with long blonde hair entered the room, "Oh goody you're awake," he said with a girlish tone. Will studied him a moment, there was something very unsettling about this. "Where am I?" Will asked.

The young man ignored him and rushed out in the hall flailing his arms flamboyantly. "He's awake! Come quick!" he was yelling into the hall. The young man came back a moment later and stepped out of the doorway as his other guest entered. He stood tall and firm, a slight limp from his recent injury and bandages around parts of his body not unlike Will's own bandages. It was a man he saw in every form of dream and nightmare imaginable when he closed his eyes. A man whose very existence gave him feelings of joy and terror, it was his friend, Hannibal Lecter.

"Hello Will."

END PART ONE


	2. Chapter 2 :Embracing Life Death

"Hello Will," Hannibal said it as he had said so many times before. He said it the same way every time, a hint of formality with the enthusiasm of informality, a grin on his face said to Will that he was pleased with Will with what happened on the cliff. Will looked over to their host who was eyeing them both with a predatory grin, "Who are you?" he asked their creepy host.

"Allow me to make the introductions," Hannibal turned on the fake charm as he did so often for people he did not trust. This young man was definitely on that list, Will thought. "Will Graham this is a former patient of mine, James Gunn"

He curtsied like a lady, "How do you do."

"Charmed," Will responded dryly, his gaze rested back on Hannibal. The two stayed that way looking at each other for a few moments before Hannibal interjected, "James, perhaps tea would be in order to soothe Mr. Graham's pains."

His face lit up, "You are absolutely right Dr. Lecter! And I have just the tea in mind!" He curtsied again as he left the room, "I won't be long boys, you two play nice."

Now Will and Hannibal were alone together, without the preying eyes of Mr. Gunn watching them, "Play nice?" Will asked bewildered.

Hannibal sat on Will's bedside, "While you slept I was catching up with young Mr. Gunn on my exploits since last we spoke." Hannibal smiled jokingly. "I left out the gory details…mostly."

"They're all gory."

"And there you go being a pessimist again," Hannibal chuckled slightly. "It appears our summer swim did not jar you with a sense of humor, just a mild concussion."

Will glared at his old partner, "You seem pretty cavalier considering…"

"Considering you threw us off a cliff?" Hannibal got closer to look Will in the eyes. "I'm happy Will because I showed you a rare beauty, the purest form of survival and life death and you did not reject it this time." He continued. "Instead you embraced it and proved it by pushing us into life death."

Will stayed silent for moment considering his words, "Can't live with you, can't live without you. It's something Bedelia said to me."

Hannibal's smile went thin, "And how is Bedelia?" he spat out her name callously.

"Alive." Will paused, "Bitter, but alive. Perhaps you should visit her."

Perhaps WE will."

"We?" Will asked. "Meaning you want me to go with you?"

"That is all I have ever wanted." Hannibal said placing a hand on his shoulder. "No more running away leaving clues, we just see the world and embrace life death."

Will weighed his options, he knew from the moment he let Hannibal loose that there was no going back. He spent so many years concealing his dark half and all Hannibal wanted was for him to embrace it. Not to feel ashamed of his mindset or the things he has to think about, to truly become his true self. But there was no room for the real Will, not in his old life, not in the FBI, not even with Walter and Molly. The only thing left was Hannibal.

James reentered the room with the tea, "And what did you boys talk about while I was gone?" he asked coyly as he handed the teacups to both of them.

Hannibal looked at Will and smiled, "We talked about the beauty of change." Will looked at his tea and muttered, "And embracing your darkness."

END PART TWO


	3. Chapter 3: Bride of Frankenstein

9 months later

Bedelia DuMaurier had fled to Europe after Will Graham told her about the FBI's plan to stop Dolarhyde. Of course she heard the news about Hannibal and Will's apparent demise. _But it's not like Hannibal would let something like mortality stop him from carrying out his vendettas_ , she thought. She didn't go back to Italy she felt that was out of the question after last time and besides, murder charges or not, Hannibal would find a way to get her there.

She instead made her way to Germany, there in the town of Dusseldorf she created a new life, she had enough money from her days as a psychiatrist, her books, and television appearances to live comfortably, but she did what Hannibal taught her and created a new identity. She became Marie Ross and every day for the first 6 months she would go to several locations in full view of the public, a café here, a bookstore there, a restaurant or two where she would order one item and sit in the same seat every day. She felt safe with so many people surrounding her, safe knowing that if Hannibal came for her that he would not get away with it without being seen. Or at least if she went missing someone would notice that a regular customer was not attending their usual ritual of buying coffee or a small dessert. Bedelia finally felt her confidence return and after 6 months of waiting she finally started to relax.

The next three months she actually let herself breathe, she explored the town more, interacted with the people more, she still attended her daily rituals out of habit, only now she did it without an aching paranoia. Russell, the bartender at her local tavern, watched as she came in and sat at the same spot at the bar as she had for almost a year.

"The usual Miss Ross?" he asked. His English was getting better. He spoke very fractured English when they first met, but these last few months she had been helping him learn to fix his sentence structure.

She nodded, "Please." She looked at the menu in front of her which she hadn't really ever looked at since she first started coming in. Russell noticed her studying the menu, "Thinking of trying something new?"

She smiled slightly, brushing some of her hair away from her face, "I'm considering my options, I feel as though I should be open to exploring new things."

"You seem a lot less in thought then when we first met, ja?"

"I have had," she paused considering her words. "A lot on my mind you could say, like that tortured thought in the back of your mind that never stops bothering you."

"Meaning the thought has gone away?" he asked.

"More like the thought has forgotten to bother me. It's quite freeing."

He poured two glasses of her favorite chardonnay that she ordered and raised one. "A toast to your freedom then?" She raised her glass with him. "To tortured thoughts staying where they belong, in the past."

As she sipped she couldn't help but notice a man in the back who appeared to be staring at her, he was wearing a large burka coat and goggles with a big hood draped over his head. He had a book open in front of him but he didn't appear to be reading it. She couldn't see his eyes because of the goggles but she just couldn't shake the feeling he watching her instead of the words in his book. She shivered slightly and stood up. "Is there something wrong, Miss Ross?" Russell asked concerned about her apparent mood change.

She gave him a false smile, "I'm afraid I'm suddenly feeling a little under the weather," she gathered her things and started towards the door. "We'll have to explore options another time."

As she left she checked through her peripheral vision to see if the man's gaze was following her, he wasn't in his seat anymore. He was walking up to Russell. As Bedelia walked home she kept feeling unsure and as if eyes were watching her again, a feeling she hadn't had in months. It was a sick feeling.

After she finally got home, she locked every door and window with every lock available and brought out her .45 magnum she kept under the bed. That night, Bedelia did not sleep a wink, listening to every single sound in and outside of her house and constantly looking through every room in her house every hour.

The next day she could not hide her exhaustion as she made her routine visits. She started getting more and more nervous as she began getting closer and closer to her visit to the tavern. She went in and to her dread Russell was not behind the bar, instead a young girl was there, she scoured the entire room for the man in the burka from the night before, but he too was nowhere to be seen. Bedelia walked up to the young woman and asked where Russell was in the native language. The girl said that Russell just didn't show up today and glared at her like she was disgusting. The girl must have thought Bedelia was a cougar preying on young attractive men, or so she told herself.

She exited the bar and started walking home, feeling eyes everywhere she continually surveyed her surroundings, checking for anything out of the ordinary. Without warning she bumped into someone and they both fell over, she immediately jumped up and began moving at a faster pace. Her heart was racing with panic. Then as people continued to pass by she almost felt like she was beginning to hear whispers coming from all around her. She began to move frantically away from the crowds of people looking everywhere to see where it was coming from. Everyone was staring, everyone judging her, calling her a freak, a monster, a murderer. All the whispers turned into accusations, and everyone continued gawking as she ran around the streets hysterically telling everyone to back away from her. Then she saw him, the man in the burka coat. She began running away, but no matter where she ran the mysterious man was not far behind.

She made her way to an alleyway where she stopped to collect her thoughts. She couldn't calm down and her heart kept racing even though she was no longer running, _Am I dying?_ She thought, but she couldn't silence the whispers no matter how hard she screamed and finally fell over from exhaustion and could not make herself get up, she kept staring at the sky as everything grew hazy and blurry and finally the whispers stopped as she fell unconscious.

She woke up in an apartment much smaller than her own but she was seated at a dining room table that had been lavishly decorated for a feast and in the center of the table was an item that lied horizontally on the table and wrapped in decorative meat wrapping paper. She was dressed differently now as well, placed in a black cocktail dress with a numbing pain she couldn't identify in her lower half as she slowly regained her senses.

"Hello Bedelia," His voice came almost as a whisper to her ear. She closed her eyes and sighed defeatedly. "Hello Hannibal."

He came around the table with her favorite chardonnay, "Are you surprised to see me?" he asked as he poured her a glass.

"Not entirely. But your return is not without it's shock value." She shook her head hoping to get rid of the remainder of whatever drug he gave her. "How did you find me?"

"It wasn't difficult." He handed her a glass. "When you made yourself a public target. Going from place to place every day, always watching, thinking you were safe in the crowd." He walked over and sat at his own place setting at the other end of the table. "I'm not the best choice of person to play hide and seek with."

"Because your nose can smell my fear?" she mocked.

"Because I know you," His gaze was stern and predatory, then shifted back to his softer fake façade he used for his lavish dinner parties, "So, did you get my holiday cards?"

"I started scrapbooking them last year."

"I read your last book and watched some of your appearances from over the past two years. I must say Bedelia, you should have given Frederick tips on his book," he chuckled. "I believe you perfectly captured the right amount of nonsense that would make sense to put all the blame of our time together on me."

She gave him a smug grin, "Well, I learned from the best about framing others and looking completely innocent in comparison." Her tone was condescending despite the drowsiness. "You make up enough false evidence and you can make anyone become a monster. Although monster was not that far of a stretch for 'Hannibal the Cannibal.'"

Hannibal tensed for a moment as though he had to quell his outrage, but he immediately fired back with, "It appears you have dusted off my old person suit and made yourself at home in it."

Bedelia began feeling less hazy and more in control and looked around, "Where is your 'partner'?"

"Will is running late, he's tying up all the loose ends with the young bartender," Bedelia cringed, Hannibal smiled. "It appears a young barmaid was so over infatuated with him and overly jealous of the friendship between him and a regular customer, an attractive older woman, that she disemboweled him in a fit of rage. Then wracked with grief, committed suicide."

"Now who's making up nonsense?" she asked. "Does it feel good, having this kind of control over people after being contained for so long?"

"I don't believe you are in any position to analyze my behaviors Doctor DuMaurier," he replied curtly. "Since your psychiatric license has been long since revoked."

"So has yours. I believe they burned yours after hearing what you did to some of your patients and colleagues…in and out of the kitchen." She began feeling her strength return. "Whatever you gave me has worn off, and I'm not restrained by any means." She said questioning his actions.

"You are more than welcome to try escaping," He replied with another sip of his drink. "But I don't imagine you'd get very far."

Bedelia looked at him bewildered and as the rest of the drugs wore off the pain from her lower half became more present. She looked down to see what was wrong to discover one of her legs was gone. _My leg! Where's my leg?!_ She asked herself with a horrified expression on her face. But sudden realization came to her and she slowly looked back to the table at the meal in front of her and realized what her old colleague had prepared for dinner.

His gaze remained on her with a satisfied expression on his face as he placed his drink back on the table, "So, shall we eat?"

END PART THREE


	4. Chapter 4: Masquerade

A lavish dinner party was being thrown in Versailles at one of the large wealth countryside homes. All the who's who of French wealthy power were attending the yearly Halloween masquerade. "Am I the only one who finds a masquerade at a rich person's home ironic?" Will asked.

Hannibal smiled at his friend's joke, "The wealthy always need an excuse to get together and put on more masks and pretend that the end isn't near."

Will nodded, "And are we the plague come to infest their home disguised as dinner guests?"

"Just like the fate of the Prince and the revelers in Poe's Masque of the Red Death we come in the guise of the unknown," Hannibal stated. "And just like the Red Death, we will strike at the king of the castle and the revelers will fall."

"Why?" Will asked confused. Hannibal bowed slightly at the security at the entrance and he and Will handed them their party invitations they "acquired" last night. After they moved past security Hannibal said, "We spoke once about becoming God and the power he feels manipulating life and death."

"Are we playing God tonight?"

"God likes to feel powerful, otherwise he would not have given free will to the masses and allowed the fragility of their lives to fall into someone else's hands. Like all of his worshippers who spill blood in his name."

Will was unsure, this would the first time he and Hannibal would be hunting together and Hannibal was not easing him into it, he was throwing straight into the lion's den. "After all is God not the motivating force of the Red Death?" he asked as Will stared into the crowd. "He killed the entire kingdom because he refused to be ignored. I believe in your power Will, do not let them ignore you."

Will closed his eyes, he used to use this trick to get into the mind of a killer when he was a profiler for the FBI, now he needed it to unlock his own killer within to find a target. He took a deep breath and created the room in his mind's eye. Everyone was frozen in place and Will walked around the ballroom, gazing at the decorations, "The trophies suggest a hunter, a ruthless predator of the jungle, an alpha male. The paintings suggest impulsive vanity with no care or thought to others." Will made his way around the room. "Everything about the catering of the event, from the glasses, to the wine, to the hor d'oeuvres has been carefully picked to enjoy in the wealth I can provide." He picked up a glass and stood before everyone in the ballroom who were still frozen but all eyes on him. "Enjoy the spoils of my victory and be grateful I allowed you into my castle, for I am your king." He held his glass high for a toast. "This is my design."

He opened his eyes and stared straight ahead at the man standing in front of everyone with a raised wine glass in the air to toast the event, he closed his speech and drank his wine only after he saw everyone else drink, an arrogant smirk came to his face for a moment, but dissolved back into his façade as he drank and became the host again. "Him," Will said. "He's the king of our story."

The two men made their way to the front of the room, Hannibal dropped little bits of powder in each platter of wine glasses as they walked past the caterers holding them, none of them were paying any particular attention to notice. The man at the front was the best dressed in the room, wearing a red tuxedo with a sash covered in medals as well as crisp white leather gloves. He noticed the two men approaching him and stiffened up his shoulders almost like he was trying to appear bigger and broader, beaming his arrogance from ear to ear. "Bonjour, gentleman." He greeted with a hardy handshake. "Welcome to my party." He looked over at Will. "I thought I should speak English considering you are clearly an American."

"Clearly." Will's immediate disdain was not as noticeable as he hoped.

Their host turned to Hannibal, "However, you sir I cannot quite place." Hannibal chuckled and said, "Je suis mais un connoisseur humble qui est venu a votre palais avec rien a offrir autre que l'eloge pour votre gout d'excuisite."

The host laughed, "Splendide! You and your praise is always welcome here Monsieur..?"

"Robert le Chevalier," Hannibal bowed. "And this is my associate, Mason Verger." Will gave him an irritated look as if to say "really?" But Will shook his head an ignored it. "Now how is it you knew my friend was American?"

The host leaned in as if he was saying a private joke, "Well you know," he gestured at Will. "The slumped shoulders, the lack of fire or motivation in his eyes, the false sense of entitlement." He stated. "All traits I have found in every American I've encountered…no offense m'sieur Verger."

Will gave him a tense smile and laughed slightly. "None taken." He looked around at the hunting trophies. "I take it you're a hunter?"

The host's eyes lit up. "Absolutely! There is nothing quite like hunting the lesser beings of the jungle and showing them who their masters are."

Both men nodded, Will kept his mouth shut and tensed his jaw to quell his outrage and Hannibal smiled with a bemused smirk as if both men could not believe the words coming out of this man's mouth. "Tell me gentleman," he asked them. "Do either of you hunt?" he asked it almost as if he was asking their sexual preferences. _That might be the next question if we say no,_ Will mused to himself.

"As a matter of fact we do, we've been hunting quite frequently," Hannibal said.

"I'm more of a fisher," Will threw in casually. "Although we've been doing a lot more fishing lately." His eyes never left the host. He was watching like a tiger eyes it's prey before they pounce.

"Speaking of hunting," Hannibal chimed in. "We have been interested in starting a new hunt around these areas. Perhaps you would like to join monsieur?"

The man gave his answer with a nod and Hannibal continued. "Perhaps in private so we can discuss…certain details of the hunt."

Their host motioned them to follow him, they left the main ballroom and went upstairs to the study where after all three men went into the room, he turned and asked, "So tell me, is it something exotic? Something illegal?"

Hannibal glanced at Will and smiled. "You could say that." He walked up and locked the door to the study. "Why…why did you lock the door?" The host was confused. He was directly between both men, he had been spending so much time focused on Hannibal he didn't notice Will unsheathe a small knife. Will sliced the man on the side of the neck. The arrogant man yelped with surprise and jumped around to face Will. Hannibal took this opportunity to grab him by the neck and poured a small vial of powder into the wound. He released their host and the man threw himself away from them. "What did you do to me?!" he asked frightened, rubbing the wound, "What is this stuff?!"

"Something to make our hunt interesting," Hannibal answered simply. "Now, just like all your unsuspecting prey, you will feel the helplessness of knowing nothing amidst your fear. Knowing only that your end is imminent."

Will opened the door to the study, "In other words, run."

The frightened man dashed past them and ran and stumbled all over the place. He was trying to get back downstairs, _Someone will help me. Someone will stop those devils_ , he thought fearfully. He couldn't accurately place where he was, the walls around him were swirling and his eyes couldn't focus. He tripped and fell down the stairs and felt something snap. He didn't have time to figure out which part of him was injured, he ran into the ballroom and began screaming for help. But to his shock, everyone in the ballroom was on the ground, blood trailed from their lips and their eyes rolled up into their heads. _How could this happen?!_ He asked himself trying to focus.

He turned around to see his hunters were now wearing skull masks painted red and brandished large kitchen knives. "What did you do to them?!" he asked stumbling around. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" he screamed.

Hannibal stepped forward, the man panicked and ran the other direction he made his way into another hallway but crashed into a wall at the end of the hall. He slumped against the wall unable to rise, paralyzed with fear. Will and Hannibal walked down the hall toward him. He cried, he begged, he pleaded them to spare him. But Hannibal raised a finger to his masked lips to indicate their victim to be silent and said, "And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night." They inched closer.  
And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood bedewed halls of their revel." They readied their blades. "And died each in the despairing posture of his fall."

Both men slashed and stabbed into their prey and Hannibal couldn't help but feel almost as if it was a dance, and that he enjoyed performing this particular dance with a partner for a change. When they ceased their action, both men removed their masks and Hannibal finished by saying, "And the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

As the two men left, surgical trophies taken from the host in tow, Will stared back at the country mansion one last time, relishing in the deathly silence whistling from the wind coming from the direction of the mansion and mumbled, "This is my design."

END PART FOUR


End file.
